Determining Critical Service Attributes and Appropriate Improvement Actions in Indonesian HEIs

To gain competitive advantage in a fast changing environment, the higher education institution (HEI) must continuously adjust the strategies to that environment. One important strategy is how to determine appropriate practical actions based on what students really need and want. Despite the abundance of research on service quality management, there is no universal consensus on how best to determine appropriate practical actions in HEIs. The aim of this paper is to develop an integrated model to be used to accurately acquire the most critical service attributes and determine appropriate actions that promote student satisfaction. Drawing on relevant literature, an integrated model is proposed which is based on students’ perspective by integrating the fuzzy SERVQUAL, refined Kano, and Blue Ocean model. Subsequently, an empirical case study in the higher education sector is described that illustrates the value of the model in determining the most critical attributes and how to improve them.